An update on the Knowledge Transfer Project

The Knowledge Transfer Project finished in July 2019 with more than 50 properties environmentally monitored, thanks to our members and PCA staff. Another 50 properties have been monitored since then, supporting the work of some of our members together with a local housing association. This has a mutual benefit for all parties in demonstrating the feasibility and proof of concept of the monitoring diagnostic approach we are developing towards the root to market. A great volume of properties and data have been easily and quickly processed and accurately interpreted, while diagnostic reports have been provided on the root cause analysis of surface condensation and mould growth in dwellings.

Feedback from the housing association has been very positive as they have been able to diagnose and rectify complex problems. We continue to work with them as there are opportunities for further testing and the information gathered from using the tool has successfully been used to mitigate disrepair claims. This is now a time and cost saving tool.

The future of this project

The project has now passed to another stage thanks to the collaboration between PCA, UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and a local Housing Association. An impartial diagnosis and neutral assessment of causes for mould growth and eventually moisture remediation, support the interests of finding more appropriate rectification strategies and the identification of more cost-effective solutions to reduce indoor moisture in UK dwellings.

Work on building a prototype of this diagnostic tool will start in April. This is possible through PCA and the UCL KE-Knowledge exchange and innovation funding mediated by the UCL Innovation & Enterprise organisation. Additionally, we’ll apply for a new research proposal funded by Innovate UK to develop a new diagnostic tool to monitor and control domestic pollution (such as SO2, NMVOCs, PM, etc.), to safeguard health.

We need you to get involved!

We must now identify the pollutants which are closest to PCA’s business and add them to this new research proposal. So, please, get in touch with Paula direct if you have any suggestions/information to add to this proposal: paula@property-care.org.

Interest in collaboration projects continues

Further interests in collaborating have also been shown by The German University in Cairo for a research student to conduct a project on the cost-benefit analysis of the developed moisture-mould diagnostics procedure. Other collaborations in place include the possibility of supporting several universities awarded with the £3 Million DEEP project (aim of the Demonstration of Energy Efficiency Potential) funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Loughborough and Leeds Beckett University have also shown their interest in collaborating with the PCA, as an opportunity to using our system in their field trials.

Our diagnostic tool can help our members

We continue to demonstrate our diagnostic tool as a cost-effective solution to reducing indoor moisture in UK dwellings, providing diagnostic reports along with the interpretation of the data collected and recommendations for solving those moisture-related issues. We can offer a number of options to assist with your monitoring, processing and interpretation of environmental data in a quick and accurate manner. We can also test before and after a retrofitting project is carried out and test under different scenarios, providing you with a summary of results gathered in our Building Moisture Index Reports (BMI).

A number of PCA members have already benefitted from adopting this solution, but for those that haven’t trialled it yet, get in touch with Paula.

Big thanks to all who helped

And thanks to all the research activities carried out during 2019, we can apply for R&D tax relief again. We are grateful to every one of our members and organisations who have worked with us and showed support for these innovative projects – we can’t do this without you!